The confusing way that bitrate works with Game Capture HD
Above photo: When I started using Game capture HD I thought this was the adjustment for bitrate. It turns out this is only the setting for the maximum bitrate. The actual adjustment is in the settings of the Elgato. It’s the little hammer and wrench icon.
Above photo: The quality slider sets the bitrate. When you move the slider in the above image the bitrate will change, it goes from 4.00 to about 15.00. When I actually start streaming it changes to 2.5Mbps. Possibly a bug. I’ve found out through testing that your actual bitrate will be .5 less then your maximum (the dial on the main page) at any slider setting (good – best). So, I had my maximum bitrate set to 3.00Mbps, then moved the slider to any setting, start streaming and I’m at 2.5Mbps.
So, now I’ve tested this, and I do not understand what the quality slider actually does. I’ve set it to the lowest(good), and the highest (best). The bitrate does not change. Here are two photos. My max is set to 3.50mbps.
Above: The left shows the slider at the lowest and right shows the highest. The bitrate is the same for both and my Twitch stream looks exactly the same with either setting. So, I have no idea what the slider does.
Sample videos at different bitrates using Elgato Game Capture HD.
This is a video capture at 1.50 mbps [max set to 2.00]
This is a video at 4.50 mbps [max set to 5.00) (redraw as in how the video looks with lots of movement) This causes over 30 second delay in the stream when the average is about 15 at lower rates.
This is a video at 7.50mbps [max set to 8.00] (this is too high of a bit rate to stream at, it causes buffering)
Here are the files if you need to download them (right click and select save link as)